Monday, January 23, 2017

On Friday we took a field trip to Mercer Arboretum where Mabel and Jacob took us around the property in search of slime mold soil. While we await the arrival of our slime molds, here are some photos of other interesting things we brought back with us.

Monday, September 12, 2016

This week, former REU Maria Polo showed UH undergraduates how to isolate dictyostelids from soil samples. They plated out the soil on hay infusion agar plates, and the plates will be checked in ~4-5 days for slugs -- the first multicellular stage of Dictyostelium.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Every summer the MLBS invites the public to come up and see what the researchers have been working on. Every lab puts on their best show and offers a hands on experience to share their interesting organisms.

Alex Novarro showing off his salamander collection

The art lab, providing custom face painting

Cloe Nash and the Ant Lab

Courtney, explaining mouse parasitism

Fish Class

Campanula americana lab

Salamanders are always a hit

Mike being sciency

Maria loves open house!

Juvenile Salamander

Mature Salamander

Work by Marc Robarge: mrobarge.comMuch of his work is clearly inspired by Dicty...

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Michael and Maria visited a new field station, the Claytor Nature Study Center, in search of slime mold samples. This beautifully preserved 470 acre property spans the Big Otter river, near Bedford, VA and the Souther Appalachians. Here are some of the treasures from the day.

Trying to capture the white slime mold. I noticed something interesting in the background of this photo.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Michael and Maria are spending the summer at our field site at the Mountain Lake Biological Station, near Blacksburg, Virginia. They are censusing our populations around the station and will take a road trip throughout the northeast to find new ones. Maria is our NSF-funded REU, and we are excited about her planned research, which will focus on interspecific chimerism.